The words floated in the void like cold neon, then everything snapped.
Hinata was back in Class 3-A. The afternoon sun still slanted through the windows, turning chalk dust into lazy golden spirals. Watanabe Yukino skidded to a stop in front of his desk, eyes sparkling exactly as before.
"Class Rep! I watched the premiere last night! You were 'fucking' incredible!"
Sato Rina bounced right behind her, twin tails swinging. "Hina! That rain scene! I died. I literally DIED!"
Hinata felt cold sweat run down his spine at the word "died." Just as he had in the back of his mind, soon enough the rest of the girls swarmed in, squealing the same lines, the same compliments, the same chaos. Hinata felt his head spin. Everything felt… off. Like watching a video at 2.5x speed.
As the class turned rowdy, he felt the scene blurring at the edges of his vision.
Yukino leaned closer, her excited expression cracking. "Class Rep… what happened? You look a bit pale."
Hinata forced a smile, the same one he had given a thousand times. "Nothing. Just… tired from filming."
Hinata came to the conclusion that it was all a dream. Just a weirdly vivid nightmare from the stress of the premiere. He even chuckled to himself. 'Yeah, right. Like any of that could be real.'
Then the ground trembled.
He suddenly swallowed hard.
He did not want to believe it. He tried to push away such a possibility. But deep down, he knew what came next.
Regardless of what his mind was saying, he bolted for the door anyway, yanking the handle with everything he had. It did not budge. The circle of light exploded beneath them, and the pillar swallowed everything.
Just like before, he awoke in the same chamber.
The leather strap was back between his teeth. The chains bit into his wrists. The cultists chanted the same maddening rhythm. The minotaur lumbered forward, its axe already rising.
Hinata thrashed harder this time, trying to scream a warning, but the gag turned it into wet gibberish. Then the blade sliced the air, and his head left his shoulders again.
"Hina… Hinata!"
Hinata gasped at the sound of his name being called so loudly. In front of him were two girls from his class, both looking worried.
"Hey, Rina, let's not disturb Hina. I don't think he is well," Yukino said in a gentle tone.
However, none of her words were being registered in Hinata's ears. This time, the blur was worse. Yukino was mid-sentence when the girls swarmed into the class. The same squeals. The same tapping pen. The same Kobayashi walking up to tap his shoulder.
'How is it repeating again?'
His stomach dropped. This was not a dream. This was a loop. He had died, and the world had reset him to the exact moment the girls rushed him.
Hinata did not waste breath on smiles. The second the trembling started, he was already calculating. One of his classmates rushed toward the door. He did not even glance at them. Instead, his lips moved instinctively.
"The door will not open."
Everyone turned to him, confused. Seeing the serious expression he was wearing, they did not dare say a word.
After thinking for a moment, he raised his gaze to them. "Everyone, group up in the middle of the class. If you get summoned anywhere, wait for me. I will find you."
The class was confused by his words, but soon the magic circle illuminated their feet. This time, he stayed at the center of the class, hoping he would be taken to wherever his classmates were going too.
His wish was not granted. When the light took him, he found himself in the same chamber, wearing the same chains.
This time, however, no sound escaped his lips, which made the several dark mages flinch slightly.
And Hinata? He grinned, actually grinned. He did not understand what the hell was going on, but if the cultists were taken aback by his calm nature, that meant they could be killed.
Again, the minotaur appeared, ready to swing.
'The left.'
He knew it. He had noticed it. The minotaur always swung from the left.
He did not waste a second. He pushed himself up on shaky legs, rushed forward, and twisted his body at the last second in an insane flip.
The chains rattled wildly as the axe missed his neck by inches, slamming into the middle of them and sending sparks flying. For one glorious heartbeat, he thought he could win.
Then a hooded mage at the back raised a hand. A fist-sized fireball screamed across the chamber and punched straight through his chest.
Hinata's mind stayed in the classroom the whole time. He barely heard anything his classmates were saying as his mind was already mapping the chamber in his head.
'The minotaur always starts with an overhead chop from the left shoulder. The mage seemed to have already prepared a fireball to hurl at me. There are eight cultists in total. The minotaur seems afraid of the fire.'
Different thoughts raced through his mind as the same sequence of events unfolded again.
Fifth loop.
This time, he waited until the minotaur committed to the swing, then kicked off the altar with both feet, using the chains as leverage.
Hinata's shoulders screamed as the axe whistled past. He landed hard behind the monster, and his legs nearly buckled. Pain exploded in his right knee, but he did not make a sound.
Just as he had anticipated, the fireball was released the moment the chains snapped. Since he was behind the minotaur, the beast took the full blow of the attack, burning to ash.
Hinata lunged forward, dragging the heavy chains behind him like iron snakes. He tried to close the distance, but he was too slow. Another flame hit him mid-stride, cooking his lungs from the inside.
Sixth loop.
The classroom felt like a sick joke now. Hinata's hands were shaking when Yukino asked why he was pale. He did not even answer.
'If I cut the chains from the central area, they will become long enough to attack them from range, but might be too heavy to move around.'
His eyes glimmered with renewed focus.
Seventh loop.
He had finally been able to kill one of the mages.
When he appeared in the chamber again and the minotaur swung, he ran forward the moment the blade was about to pass his face. With his right foot, he launched himself upward in a desperate flip.
The chains looped over the descending axe like a skipping rope. Metal screamed against metal. The axe head slammed into the chain links right at the center.
Hinata landed on his feet, wrists still bound but now holding two rattling lengths of heavy chain like makeshift flails. Adrenaline roared in his ears, but he was only able to kill three of them.
Eighth loop: he dodged the chop, flipped, broke the chains, let the mage kill the minotaur, dodged several attacks, then killed four mages.
Ninth loop: same dodge, same flip, same broken chains. This time, he used the minotaur's body as a shield and was able to kill five of them.
Tenth loop. Eleventh. Twelfth. Each death taught him something new. The cultists panicked when their formation broke. The minotaur's dead body was the perfect shield. Out of the eight, five were fire mages, one used darkness, one used invisibility, and one used swords.
On the thirteenth loop, Hinata moved like he had done this a thousand times. That singular change made the cultists' attacks disorganized.
He killed the distorted invisible assassin the moment he freed himself. He was at the center of them all, so seeing him kill someone they could not even see sent panic through their ranks.
Hinata swung the chain, exploding the head of the knight and the dark mage. Before they could react, he slid between the legs of the minotaur and whipped one chain around the creature's ankle.
With a brutal, muscle-tearing swing, he launched himself toward them. None of them could react as he used the free chain to crush one's head while landing on the gut of another.
He immediately released the chain around the minotaur's ankle and shot it straight at the one who always attacked him first.
The last two had one guard between them, but he was not scared. He took a deep breath. The mages used that brief moment to hurl fireballs, but he dodged at the right moment. The fireballs collided with the chains, causing their edges to burn red.
The two mages took a hesitant step back. The chamber went silent, and only the sound of chains whipping through the air and something exploding could be heard.
Hinata looked around him. Every single one of his foes was dead. They had won fifteen different times, but at the end of the day, he remained victorious.
With trembling, bloody fingers, he ripped the gag out and spat.
Ding!
"Ten minutes…" he said, falling onto the hard ground. If the cultists had waited a little before killing him, this place would have been his burial ground.
"Hahahaha… HAHAHAHAH!" A loud, rough laugh escaped his lips.
His chest was heaving, his right leg felt numb, and his entire body was covered in burns and cuts.
In the center of the shattered altar, a small obsidian orb pulsed with pure darkness. Anyone who had read manga or manhwa would instantly recognize what it was… a core.
The thing the cultists had been trying to awaken inside him. The Shadow God's core, containing every scrap of power their so-called god had.
Hinata knew one thing. If he planned on surviving long enough to find his way back home, he needed strength.
However, now he had no magic, no system, no legendary weapons. This shadow core was his only chance at getting stronger.
Crawling on his hands and knees, Hinata reached the orb. It felt warm. Alive. Hungry.
He studied it for three heartbeats. No other option. If he left it, someone else would take it. If he died again, then he would have to blame it on his own stupidity.
Hinata opened his mouth and swallowed the entire core in one gulp.
It tasted like wet rags mixed with rotting flesh and old blood. His throat convulsed. He gagged hard, eyes watering, but forced it down.
He expected pain to come next. Instead, his body was filled with extreme cold, like he had run into Antarctica naked.
The cold feeling soon vanished, replaced by warmth. The bruises on his body vanished, and his broken leg snapped back into place. Even the chains rattling on his wrists broke off.
Then a new voice, deeper, older, infinitely more dangerous, spoke directly into his soul.
Hinata lay on the blood-slick floor and smiled for the first time since the loops began.
Finally, he was free.